Scenes from My Childhood

I was inspired to work on this series after discovering a website called “Which Picture Triggers Your Childhood Nostalgia?” The word trigger is very fitting in describing how memory works as there is always something - like a word or an image or a scene – that immediately brings back memories of our past. To begin, I came up with ten words that remind me of my childhood. I kept them in Japanese to show where these scenes took place. Whereas my last series, Overflow, shows my sadness over my fleeting childhood, this series focuses more on the joys of my youth. Looking back, there are still many things that I experienced that I think are well worth remembering. Digital art is my primary medium. I find this tool perfect for presenting my memories because digital scanners are frequently used to preserve old photographs or documents in a pristine state. Childhood is such a transient stage that many hold onto regardless of its ephemerality, so drawing digitally is similar to keeping the memory alive without worrying over its eventual decay. When it comes to creating light-hearted artworks, modern children’s book illustrations are my continuous inspiration. This stylized art gives me freedom to draw myself as the main character without being recognized, thus allowing my viewers to imagine themselves as the young girl and think about their own childhood experiences. I want children to look at these images and be encouraged to enjoy their childhood so they may grow up without regrets